The present invention relates to a prosthetic tooth support with at least one prosthetic tooth, in particular with several prosthetic teeth. Moreover, the invention also relates to a kit having such a prosthetic tooth support, and to a method for machining at least one prosthetic tooth and a method for producing a prosthetic tooth support.
Total or partial dental prostheses are composed principally of at least two different components. These are, on the one hand, a prosthesis base, which replaces the missing gum areas, and, on the other hand, the prosthetic teeth, which function as replacements for the missing natural teeth of the patient. The prosthetic teeth are connected to the prosthesis base and have both therapeutic and also aesthetic functions. Prosthetic teeth are offered by various manufacturers. All commercially available prosthetic teeth are prefabricated forms which vary in terms of their color. Prefabricated tooth forms are commercially available in various sizes and are selected by the dental technician according to certain individual characteristics of the patient, e.g. available space, height, sex, and figure. The commercially available prosthetic teeth for use in total and partial prostheses in the patient's dentition are employed in a substantially unmachined state. For this purpose, the crown area in particular of the prosthetic teeth remains largely intact. However, in most cases the neck and root area of the prosthetic teeth have to be adapted on account of the different bite heights, that is to say the different distance between upper jaw and lower jaw in the individual patients. To this end, the neck and root areas of the prosthetic teeth are shortened. In the prior art, this is done free-hand by the dental technician, which results in inaccuracies and also in considerable expenditure of time, since the length of the prosthetic tooth has to be repeatedly checked. When shortening the teeth, the objective is to leave as much as possible of the neck of the tooth unmachined and to shorten it only by as little as possible. The neck and root area of the prosthetic tooth serves as a connection surface to the prosthesis base, although it also has important functions as regards the aesthetics of the prosthetic tooth and therefore of the entire prosthesis.
In dentistry in general, there has in recent years been an increase in the use of automated or computer-aided devices for the production of tooth replacements. In particular, the production of total prostheses presently represents a field of activity in the area of dental CAD-CAM development. This concerns both the design of the prosthesis base and also the positioning of the individual prosthetic teeth relative to the prosthesis base. For this reason, the information concerning the shape of the commercially available prosthetic teeth is also already digitized, i.e. provided as data records. However, for the digitally or virtually assembled or designed total prosthesis to be actually implemented in reality, it is still necessary for the commercially available prosthetic teeth to be shortened in order to find space in the prosthesis base.
In the prior art, the prosthetic teeth are made commercially available on prosthetic tooth supports, although the prosthetic teeth are affixed to the prosthetic tooth support so as to adhere only slightly via an adhesive compound. The adhesives used for this purpose serve simply to ensure that the prosthetic teeth are not lost during transport and are positioned for a better view. The adhesives are sufficiently weak so that the prosthetic teeth can be easily removed by hand from the prosthetic tooth support.
Moreover, the prosthetic teeth secured on the prosthetic tooth supports (so-called tooth cards) are fixed in the support medium of the support in the area of the neck of the tooth.